President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner traded sharp words Wednesday as each leader urged the other to get serious about averting the fiscal cliff — and Boehner revised his strategy on the Hill.

House Republican leaders are changing their plans for Boehner’s “Plan B” tax proposal as vote counts show the margin extraordinarily close.

Fiscal cliff: A primer

GOP leadership is considering attaching a package of spending cuts to ride alongside Boehner’s tax rate bill. Republican lawmakers are skittish about voting on allowing taxes to snap to near 40 percent for millionaires without paring back federal spending.

Simultaneously, Republican leadership scrapped a plan to vote on the Senate’s tax rate proposal, which extended Bush-era tax rates for income below $250,000. Republicans are looking to keep their message tight, sources said.

Amid signs that negotiations are stalled, Obama stepped out first, telling reporters at the White House that it is “puzzling” that Republicans haven’t accepted his latest fiscal cliff offer when they’re only separated by a few hundred billion dollars in spending cuts.

Boehner responded a short time later with a 54-second statement from the Capitol, rejecting the president’s offer and announcing his intention to push forward with a vote Thursday on his so-called Plan B bill that raises taxes on income above $1 million.

“The president will have a decision to make,” Boehner said just before he abruptly left the room. “He can call upon Senate Democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history.”

The dueling statements Wednesday were an attempt by both parties to frame the high-stakes debate over the fiscal cliff and pin blame on the other side if Washington fails to deal with more than $500 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes, which are scheduled to go into effect in the new year.

Substantive talks have ground to a halt since Boehner announced he would pursue a Plan B bill that raises tax rates but does nothing to deal with across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester, reduce entitlement spending or address a host of expiring provisions.

The administration issued a veto threat earlier Wednesday in a signal to Boehner that he should abandon the fallback bill and reengage in the talks on a $2 trillion budget package.

Obama said he is willing to continue talks with Boehner. But the two have not spoken since Monday night, when the speaker informed him of the alternate strategy. Obama said he would reach out to congressional leadership over the next few days in an attempt to learn why Capitol Hill isn’t making progress.

Readers' Comments (92)

Get to work Republicans, pass your bill to make the Bush tax cuts permanent for those with incomes under $1 million, and send it to the Senate and Obama. Then, adjourn the House for your Christmas break. Let the Senate raise taxes on those under $1 million, if they dare and let Obama veto the bill, if he's so obtusely stubborn. The bill will be clean and unburdened with side issues and thus you will take the high ground and win either way.

Boehner has offered Pres. Obama what he asked for. The President wanted a tax increase on the marginal tax rates paid by the "rich" before any cuts would be discussed. He said he stood ready to sign such a bill. Now Boehner is poised to give the President the tax increase to 39.5% on the rich that he requested.

How the President can have the gaul to call this anything other than a welcome concession that helps move things forward is pure partisan politics. The President is clearly showing that he is unwilling to accept any compromise suggested by Republicans on any feature of his express demands. The President wants to rule as King, not as President.

Boehner should give Reid and possibly the President, the opportunity to turn down this compromise and send us over the cliff. And then Boehner should refuse to address the issue again until all other associated issues are dealt with.

It turns out that the general public was right all along. All this chatter about "global warming" was a hoax and designed to get more research grants for academics to take vacations to exotic places for vacation while claiming to be "researching studies of vast importance to the preservation of the earth in its entirety!".

At $30 million a day to run Congress, why does Boehner keep wasting our money on these lame go-nowhere maneuvers. While you're at it, Boehner, why not have another vote to repeal Obamacare. Let me guess -- you want to insure that Obama does not get a third term in office. The Repubs still acting like a bunch of morons.

I guess Republicans in congress do not want to pay more taxes..mmmmmmmmmm...They must earn between 250,000 to a1,000,000....... so, they do not want the US to pay its debt by causing us going over the cliff.....how they do not want our government to pay for what we already have spent...and want Middle class families to pay a higher tax rate than rich people? How they want to lead if they are showing to the people of this country.................IRRESPONSIBILITY

Yea I know poor people do not want to work and live under our expenses........rich people do not want to pay their fare share.................so, what we should do?

Make people pay their right share..................cut loopholes in the tax system........people that have accounts out of this country MUST PAY TAXES on that money.....they are making their money in here......Fix the WELFARE system that it is ridiculous for us to pay for the living expenses of lazy people....They have to start working and stop having children that they cannot support.....we should help people for few months NOT for life!

Employers hiring illegal immigrants must pay a fine and/ or go to jail for embracing other people to brake the laws of our land......If employers wouldn't hire illegal immigrants we wont have this PROBLEM!

Republicans say they do not want illegal immigrants in this country....neither do I......but, they embrace employers to hire them...........helping the Rich with Cheap Labor.....Not hiring legal citizens with full time jobs......and giving benefits!

Democrats on the other hand they are weak..............they never can fight for one issue and support each other no matter what...........it is the party of no Back Bone.......! Hope this term the President get all DEMOCRATS on board....................and do what is right for this Country....and for US.........Middle Class!

“The White House’s opposition to a back-up plan to ensure taxes don’t rise on American families is growing more bizarre and irrational by the day,” Buck said in an email statement.

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Now I like Boehner but this is not even slick. Does he think that the President is an idiot in additon to thinking that he is a Kenyan Communist?

The fact is that this Plan B is a Republican crafted bill. It is all their wishes and demands.. in a bill.

Now if the President agrees to their "back up plan" which is what they want and how they want it........what incentive is there for Boehner to negotiate on plan A?

Why would Boehner negotiate on plan A when all he has to do is let it fail so that he can get everytthng he wants in the plan B that he crafted? And why would the White Hosue agree to their own hanging?

Here's and Idea; How about we start with a Budget? You know...the planning tool that has worked for centuries? It has always worked in the past, so Why don't we do that? Why?...Because Harry Reid, Obama and the Progressives have refused to pass a budget resolution or honestly deal with the Budget issue at all. Proof once again that avoiding a problem does nothing to solve it

We are supposed to have a National Budget every year by Law, but we have not seen one for four years, and it is the annual Budget negotiations where proper planning and budget analysis happen...It is that process that in the past has forced fiscal reality on both parties, and the Washington class who irresponsibly choose to give away money we do not have rather than dealing honestly with the Citizens and the problem. We must stop spending money we do not have and live within our means.

We do not have a 'Revenue' problem...We have a 'Spending' problem, and a 'Debt' problem as a direct result of the Spending problem. Obama's 'Plan' results in trillion dollar deficits for ever and never solves anything...Neither does the Republican non-solution of caving on spending. We need Real solutions, not more posturing. The numbers do not add up...We cannot tax our way out of this problem. We must cut spending.

As it stands the proposed plans do nothing to solve the real problem, the Spending problem. All the verbiage and spin in the world will not change the numbers...until Government Spending is controlled, all the taxes in the world will not make a difference.

It always amazes me how untrustworthy Boehner is. I used to respect the guy and now he's just another political hack who could care less about the country. The president's deal is fine and does more than "Plan B" which is just the Tea Party cop-out. I'm so sick of the whole conservative movement. I think they are a dead or dying party. I'm so sick and tired of the GOP.

First we are in this situation because of the two Republican Wars and the Bush tax cuts, period. The proof is the various military and defense parts of the government cost approximately $400 billion in 2000 and today total $1 TRILLION(think $600 billion for all the non math majors). the Bush tax cuts are totaling $400 Billion per year. The deficit is around $1 TRILLION. 400000000000 + 600000000000 = 1,000,000,000,000

The Republican plan is to take money from the poor, seniors, and young directed, progressive plans and allow the war mongers to still make lots of money and the rich to keep all theirs. That is their plan! Yes, it is incredible.

Just watched O'Bama's news conference. He repeated his belief that taxes need to go up on the millionaires and the billionaires. Then he proceeded to explain why he wouldn't accept tax increases, beginning at the one million dollar level, because that would give too much in tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. Bizarre.

What's incredible is your total lack of understanding of what section of American society has benefitted the most from the Bush tax cuts as well as the temporary tax/unemployment insurance measures taken by your government over the past dozen years. If you think the rich are the ones soaking up the payroll tax holiday, the extension of unemployment insurance to 99 weeks, the majority of the Bush era tax cuts, etc., you're a useful idiot and the type of American Obama has built a career upon.

mad skills, you seem to forget that there was a long list of Democrat senators that approved the wars. So, don't try the "Bush's fault", it's just not true and it's getting really old. See if you can actually think for a change and come up with something better to explain 0bama's trillion dollar a year deficits.